Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid container for containing a liquid to be supplied to a liquid ejection head for ejecting the liquid, a liquid container unit for holding the liquid container, and a liquid ejecting apparatus provided with a liquid ejection head for ejecting a liquid.
Related Art
A liquid ejecting apparatus for ejecting ink, which is one example of a liquid, from, for example, a liquid ejection head onto a sheet of paper, which is one example of a medium, to print an image, including text or graphics, has been conventionally put to practical use. This type of apparatus supplies the ink to the liquid ejecting head for ejecting the ink, from an ink cartridge (a liquid container) containing the ink, by way of connecting tubes that are connected to the cartridge. The ink thus supplied is ejected from the liquid ejection head onto the sheet of paper in association with the printing of an image.
In the liquid ejecting apparatus of such description, in order to supply ink in a continuous and stabilized manner to the liquid ejecting head in a case where a comparatively large amount is to be printed, there has been proposed a configuration in which the ink is supplied from an ink tank that contains a greater capacity of the ink than does the ink cartridge (for example, see Japanese Laid-open Patent Application 2006-24529).
It has been noted that in the liquid ejecting apparatus for carrying out a large amount of printing, it has been possible for there to arise a case where the ink does not remain in the ink tank containing the greater capacity of ink, but rather is consumed. In order to address such a case, an injection port whereby the ink can be replenished is provided to the ink tank. At this time, in a case where the ink tank is provided to the outside of a chassis of the liquid ejecting apparatus, the ink tank is at all times in an exposed state, and dust has therefore been prone to collect on the ink tank. For this reason, when the ink (the liquid) is supplemented and replenished from the injection port, there is a greater likelihood that dust will be admixed with the ink in an ink chamber capable of containing the ink within the ink tank. For this reason, the admixed dust hinders the flow of the ink, and it becomes impossible to supply the ink to the liquid ejection head in a continuous and stabilized manner via the connecting tubes.